Chicken shortage causes KFC to shut shops in the UK

Popular fast food chain KFC said it shut down hundreds of its UK stores overnight as the Germany delivery supplier DHL failed to send over fowl for the stores. KFC said that more than 700 of its 900 UK based shops were forced to shut over the weekend. Some other shops offered a reduced menu or had shorter opening hours.

“We’ve brought a new delivery partner on-board, but they’ve had a couple of teething problems — getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex,” KFC said in a statement.

The company said that they do not want to compromise on quality and apologized for disappointing customers when they wanted their fried chicken fix. “We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days, and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix — we’re really sorry about that,” the company said.

Do we know when local #KFC stores will re-open! Had dinner planned but shut at the moment in Harlesden and I want my fix of chicken

In a separate statement, DHL said that they are working to resolve this issue. DHL had recently taken over the KFC contract from a company called Bidvest Logistics. DHL said that “due to operational issues a number of deliveries in recent days have been incomplete or delayed”.

Meanwhile KFC said that in the restaurants owned by the chain, workers on short term contracts would be paid on the basis of average hours worked per day over the past 12 weeks, and those on salaries would be paid as normal.

But about 80% of KFC outlets are run on a franchise basis, reports BBC. "Franchisees will be seeking their own independent advice, but we're encouraging them to adopt this policy too," said KFC.